


Chasing echoes of what we could be

by Ale_Song



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, these two need to have more adventures together so here i am
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ale_Song/pseuds/Ale_Song
Summary: That wasn't supposed to happen.Not that she was against it, not at all. River just didn't expect this one in the middle of her dig. Sure, that face was surely a very refreshing view for the archaeologist, even more so because she was forced to work side by side with Lux in the last five weeks.An unexpected encounter with a certain Doctor that River shouldn't have met leads to an alarming discovery. Surely everything is gonna be fine, right?
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/River Song, The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Chasing echoes of what we could be

That wasn't supposed to happen. 

Not that she was against it, not at all. River just didn't expect this one in the middle of her dig. Sure, that face was surely a very refreshing view for the archaeologist, even more so because she was forced to work side by side with Lux in the last five weeks. If work was what Mr. Lux was actually doing in that little asteroid simply known as Axcletis. Its real name was different, but that little rock became famous in the academic world only few weeks earlier, when one of the most relevant Luna's archeologist (not River, unfortunately) hypothesised that this particular asteroid was one of the first settlement of the Axcletis.

Obviously anyone who was even a little prominent in Luna wanted to be part of this expedition; and someone even bought the favour of the expedition jury...Which was exactly what River suspected Felman Lux did. After all his bigger merit was that he donated yearly lots of money to the archaeological found for innovations and researches of the faculty, but only because his late father imposed it in his will. Needles to say that the moment River and his crew arrived on Axcletis, Mr Lux was way more interested in find a decent bed (there weren't. River choose only light equipment, and opted for more compact sleeping bags) than to do anything that would even remotely resemble archeology.  
He was quickly becoming River's biggest annoyance, so after almost five weeks (a personal record for her standards) she decided to put him in charge of something more...trivial, that wouldn't put her mental stability at risk. His only job was looking at the lights of the central panel of the research tent, and report immediately to River if something peculiar happened to one or more of them. A basic, boring job,and somehow he managed to fail in his only task.

The proximity and energetic sensors captured something.

The proximity sensor wasn't all that worrying. It only meant that someone was a little too much close to the limit of the dig, nothing that wouldn't be resolved by a warning (one of the few tasks Lux should have done). But the second one! The energetic sensor was one of the most feared thing of a novel archaeologist (and in quite some cases even in the more expert ones). It meant traces of modern civilisation, or to better say a massive amount of energy in a delimited area. Unusually high levels of energy meant almost always one thing: Scavengers.  
The Scavengers were actually the reason why this type of sensors were so popular (and feared) among expeditioners. With no degree or experience whatsoever, their only goal was finding valuable artifacts to sell on the black market. And what they miss with experience they made up with fire power. Lots of it.

So when the energetic sensor literally blew up during a rainy evening, the first thing River did was finding her guns. In theory taking any kind of weapon to an excavation site was prohibited, but after all River was never one prone to following the rules. With her blaster in her right hand and her loyal sonic trowel in her left one River started approaching the most important place in the whole dig, the research tent, where all the artifacts were moved after their discovering, waiting to be cataloged.

She found nothing.

All the valuable and most precious items were there, nothing was missing. Everything was exactly as the team left it earlier that day... Except for a trial of footprints. River couldn't recognize them, clearly they weren't from any of her crew. The footprint would be different in that case, leaving behind the form of a standard equipment boot that Luna provided them, so she quickly followed the muddy trail. She counted on her team mates commonsense that they wouldn't go near to the research tent, opting to hide themselves in the vehicle in which they arrived. A sturdy ship made with the most resistant metal and materials Luna university could afford.

The sight of her, of her mother, made River's eyes light up. Standing there, all blue and majestic. It didn't matter how old or which version the TARDIS, the spaceship always greeted her with a gentle sound that River always considered as a "welcome back". Just from a look at her, River acknowledged a thing: it wasn't _her_ doctor inside. The design had some slight differences from the one she was so accustomed to see. Slowly River stepped into the TARDIS, a soft, warm light giving her the official welcome. She quickly noticed that the light source was a candelabra perilously put on top of a pile of books. A comfy looking armchair in the far side of the console room, next to it a little table with a cup of what probably was tea. The flower decorated porcelain cup (probably form the 18th century River hypothesized) was still fuming, a sign that whoever was there had just left (unless, River thought, it was that special blend of tea that grows only on Ardiania, very famous because even after hour it was still piping hot.).  
The vast, gothic console with a style that River could describe as delightfully posh, guarded by the imperious sigil of Rassilon, gave her a very precise idea of which regeneration of her husband was inhabiting the spaceship.

Curious to find more, namely the Doctor, River put down her blaster near the cup, then gave in to temptation and dipped her finger into the cup. No, it wasn't Ardiania's tea after all, it was too much sweet for her tastes and the scent of honey was almost overwhelming.

"Excuse me...Miss? How did you get in here?" Asked suddenly a very polite voice, he was finally back... With a sugar bowl (also from the 18th century but from a different porcelain set) in his right hand. As if the tea needed to be sweetened even more.  
To be fair, River knew that her husband faces were in fact all the same man ( for now, not that she dreamed a couple of time that one of the future regenerations of her sweetie was a woman...not at all), but even she had to quietly admit to have favourites. River noticed he put 4 sugar cubes in the cup. Not as bad as his eleventh incarnation, but still way too much sweet for her taste.

"Ummm... I was just admiring the interiors of your magnificent ship! That and following some mysterious prints that lead me here. Do you know anything, don't you?" Said blatantly ironically River, "Really, why are you here? It's literally the last place I'd expect you to visit."

"Oh! Hot!" Responded only the Doctor, softly blowing on the fine china he was holding in his hands, trying to cool down the hot liquid he tried to sip only moments prior.

"Do I have to leave you two alone?" hinted River, even if it was the most basic innuendo she could imagine, the blush on the Doctor face was another indicator that something never change (still she really hoped that one day the things would change, hopefully). River caught him whispering something that only looked like a half apology, too quick to be completely sincere. He was way more interested in drinking his tea, or at least trying to drink it. If only he waited for a little more, but River never thought of the Doctor as someone with much self control. Just like herself.

"Sorry about that. I just landed, but I shouldn't be here, she got my coordinates wrong... Again." Explained the doctor, sweetly patting one of the console panels. Then suddenly more serious, he added "I'm starting to thing something is wrong with the old girl. Or more probably she's having one of her typical temper tantrum."

"That doesn't respond to my question, why are you in my dig, Doctor? I know you entered into the research tent. Did something catch your eyes?" Questioned River once more, causing a barely noticeable smirk on the Doctor's mouth.

"Really, I was aiming to four hundred years ago, actually. I should be on Fanvoxy for the famous Gruesome Masquerade Ball. Not gruesome at all, mind you. It's just called like that because of a very old tradition of that planet of trowing the convicts of high treason into the sacred pit of pureness...Don't look at me like that, the royal family vetoed it centuries ago!"

"Darling!" Interrupted River, "I know the origin of the Gruesome Ball. I'm an archaeologist, it's literally my job to know that!"

"So I'm your darling now? That was quick, I don't even know your name. But that's not the whole story, am I right? You don't look amazed by the TARDIS. You didn't even do the thing!" Said just a little too much smugly the Doctor. Oh he was a quick one, realized River. He always liked a good mystery and River didn't miss at all the how the Doctor's eyes lighted up, a sudden change indicating he sensed the challenge.

"Something like that. And no, I won't elaborate." River tried to gloss over, but quickly changed her mind. The damage was already done, and again it was all his fault... Well, not really. It wasn't his fault if his future selves weren't as perceptive as the earlier ones. River started to think she underestimated the Doctor, but in her defence it wasn't her fault if her Doctor was so obtuse. Especially about her.

"Now who's changing the subject?" Teased the Doctor, finally finishing his tea. "As i said," Continued the Time Lord ,"I tried to leave, but she wouldn't even start. I thought it was better going out, leave her some space in case she needed to finish her temper tantrum, or if there was something wrong, run a diagnostic. That's when I found your little dig."

"Couldn't you just ask?"

"Well, it was raining and I really didn't want a bunch of wet, grumpy archaeologists to follow me all around a dig in the middle of nowhere."

"How very polite of you! So let me understand, you thought that sniffing around all around MY dig was the wisest thing to do?"

"Yes!" Candidly admitted the Doctor, sipping happily his tea.

"Well, at least you are honest. It's actually disarming." Finally said River with the intention of drop the subject. What followed was several moments of awkward silence. The Doctor, somehow, managed to refill his cup and was drinking it with the utmost attention.

"So, the TARDIS. What's wrong with her? She looks fine to me." Asked River. Just from a quick glance at the control panels she couldn't notice anything odd.

"No idea, I'm starting to think that she's just having one of her tantrums. And no, I have no idea of what I did to cause it." Replied the Doctor.

"Are you sure about that? Did you, for any chance, spilled tea on the console? She really doesn't like that." The Doctor didn't answer to River's blatant tease, opting instead to do the _why-is-it-always-my-fault-for-everything_ face. River didn't even know he had one of those so early on in his life.

It was in that exact moment that one of the console's panel lighted up.

"Are you really sure about that?" Asked once more River.

"Of course I'm sure. The last time it happened was almost three weeks ago. And I apologised! Something else is going on." River didn't wait for an invitation and got closer to the displays. Almost all the readings seemed normal, apart from one. It was so insignificant that the readers and sensor back at the dig didn't pick it up.

"Gotcha! Doctor, I think this is the problem. See this traces of Samelyan energy? It shouldn't be here at all!"

"Samelyan? Oh, this is bad news."

It was very bad news indeed. Samel was a very influential planet some nine centuries prior. It advanced quite rapidly thanks to the invention of the Samelyan energy, a very profitable way to transform the more than abundant hydrogen in its atmosphere in powerful, and most important, safe batteries. The golden age of the planet came at an abrupt end when it got involved in the Xvoria war, a horrific affair in which two nearby planets, Oscalis and Kajil, battled for the terraforming of one of the many moons of the Xvoria System. Oscalis demanded military supplies from Samel, and when they were denied because the planet was part of the Shadow Proclamation, the Oscarians invaded it. Nowadays, River recalled, it was pretty much a colossal military base for the Oscalisan forces, who were still at war with Kajil in what was called now the Endless War.

"Do you think that some Samelan artifacts are buried here?" Asked quietly the Doctor. River looked at him, his face still turned to the screens, gazing attentively at the readings, giving her a very appreciated sight of his profile.

"Possibly. I mean I've never heard of a Samelan artifact found outside the Xvoria System. They weren't great travellers, and preferred to have all their commercial trades with nearby planets." Explained River. "Yes, it is odd, but stranger thing have happened in the past."

"As an archaeologist?" Teased the Doctor.

"Yes, darling. As an archaeologist." River insisted. He really had not even the faintest idea of the discoveries made during her career. One of her personal favourite was a simple little wooden-like tablet found on Wenqu. Its almost unreadable and coded writing caused fights among academic because no one could decipher it. Until some years later, when her team found out that it was unreadable because it was roughly translated with a very low quality text-to-speech AI, and the writer never actually bothered to fix the writing. The results of years of debating, (drunk) fights between professors was finally a readable version of the artifact, and to everyone's surprise the wooden tablet was simply a child's homework. A cheats sheet about basic arithmetic, to be more precise. That was a funny day at Luna, she even won fifty credits from Benny.

"Anyway," started River "What could be a very rare an important artifact is somewhere around here. The fact that my team hasn't found anything even vaguely resembling a Samelan powercell leads me to think that it's still buried here somewhere."

"And how do you know how a Samelan battery is like?" questioned the Doctor, "It's not as if they're really popular nowadays. Samel's atmosphere was almost 94% of hydrogen, it was easy for them using the most of it to produce batteries. Sure, hydrogen was the main component, but they also needed a very specific mix of other gasses. When the Oscalisan threatened to invade, they destroyed all the project about basically anything even remotely related to their energy discoveries."

There was no need to lie River thought, "I cheat. A lot."

"And you call yourself archaeologist?"

"It's more like a part time job, lately." Admitted River fronting the Doctor. She knew he was joking, he was practically smiling as if he just said the funniest thing. "But since you're here you're being very mean to me," she continued, deciding that she could play that game too, "I suggest we go out and find whatever thing is creating those emissions."

"Now?"

"Yes, why not?"

"In the middle of a storm?"

"What, Doctor? Scared that the humidity is gonna ruin your hair? You already went out, your shoes are still wet." Mocked River. She really wasn't the one to mock someone's hair ability to go in all directions at the tiniest hint of humidity. And the her Doctor loved to tease her. 

"Not at all. Umbrellas exists for a reason, you know? You should know, look at you hair. And for the records: it wasn't raining that heavily. " It was like a never ending circle of teasing each other, noticed River. So it was just fair to reciprocate.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

As the Doctor and River discovered once they stepped out from the TARDIS, the umbrellas weren't needed. The rain had finally stopped, and the hint of petrichor enveloped River's nose. The surroundings looked like a muddy mess, rain was quite a rare event Axcletis. So very rare in fact that few academics thought that the lack of meteorological events were one of the causes of the asteroid's downhill.

"Well, where do we start?" 

"I think that the wise thing to do is following the readings. The results the TARDIS gave us were very accurate."

"I would say a lot of very lovely things about the Old Girl," started the Doctor, turning around to lock up his ship, "but accurate isn't one of them. After all I shouldn't be here."

"Or maybe that's why you're here. Think about that. You're in the vortex, just passing by. All of the sudden the TARDIS detects something and identify it as a threat. The next logical thing to do in her opinion is to land where she tracked those emissions." Suggested River. Nothing about the TARDIS behaviour was casual, her mother always had a plan.

"Okay, maybe you got a point. For this time, at least." Admitted the Doctor.

They walked in companionable silence for a couple of minutes, the Doctor curiously checking the surroundings as if the bare soil of the asteroid was the most interesting thing he saw in a while, and River looking at the scans the transferred to her handheld from the TARDIS. The reading indicated that something odd was indeed present only a couple of kilometers after the dig site, in a small cave down a steep descent.

"So, any idea to get down there?" Asked the Doctor.

"I have the gear, but it's in my tent. If I run I can go back to the camp, grab it and get back in max thirty minutes." hypothesized River. She was faster that the average human, but she had to keep in mid the weight of the gear.

"So what do I do? I just stay here and wait for you?"

"Yes. You can try to see if there's an alternative opening to the cave. But please, don't do anything. Just wait for me. The last thing i need is you falling, bumping your had and have another case of amnesia"

"That is rude, and it's been a while since the last time something like that happened to me. Usually it's not even my fault, just very unlucky circumstances."

"Then don't create any unlucky circumstances and wait for me. Sit down...Or maybe not because it's all muddy. Just relax a little and look at the sky." Said River as she turned to go back to her camp, but quickly added, "And if something goes wrong, because let's be honest it's bound to happen, just yell River."

"Why would I yell that? It's not as if there is a body of water nearby."

"Darling, that's my name."

"Oh! In that case," said the Doctor "Hello River! We didn't make acquaintance, but after all you appear to know a lot about me. I'll think about that."

"Oh, you're a charmer." Simply answered back River without turning over as she ran.

**Author's Note:**

> So, hello! It's been... A while, to say at least. 
> 
> I'm going to be sincere, writing this fic (or this first chapter to be precise) was hell. It 's a very funny story that includes, a broken computer, 2 loss of data and the (very) long retirement of my muse. So, I'm going to tell this now: I'm trying. I swear, I want to finish this fic, it's been literally years I have this in mind.  
> So, please tell me what you think about it!
> 
> Anyway, back to writing! See you all soon when I'll post the next chapter (so probably in something like 42 years...But still)!


End file.
